US students who box, skydive and help youth and asylum seekers are among 2025's Rhodes scholars

A group of 32 students from the United States have been selected to attend the University of Oxford as part of the prestigious Rhodes scholar program in the coming year among an international class representing more than 70 nations, scholarship officials announced.

The program provides scholarships covering all expenses at England's storied university. The U.S. students include a Columbia University graduate who founded a group working to keep Brazilian youth in school; a Brown University student born in Mexico who has interviewed asylum seekers, and a Stanford University student and amateur boxer whose senior honor thesis focused on political violence in sub-Saharan Africa.

Nearly 3,000 U.S. students applied to pursue graduate degrees beginning in October 2025, the Office of the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust in McLean, Virginia, said in a statement early Sunday.

The 32 recipients include students from 19 states and the District of Columbia attending 20 U.S. colleges and universities. During the application process, 865 students were endorsed by 243 colleges and universities. Committees in 16 U.S. districts then selected 238 finalists for interviews.